Feb

17th

RootsTech re-cap

Oh man. You guys. We are just back from RootsTech and I am utterly grateful for the experience I had there. Really, I’m still just so excited about it all. If you’re wondering what RootsTech even is … think family history, heritage, genealogy… our “roots”… and think about technology. Roots + Tech. Get it?

RootsTech is an exciting – and the largest – family history event in the world (hosted by FamilySearch), and it is the perfect place to be inspired to discover and share your family stories and connections—past, present, and future. Whether you’re an avid genealogist or you are just getting started, RootsTech has something for everyone. Now that I’ve finally been able to attend, I can attest to all of that. I’m already excited about next year and my calendar is already marked — February 3-6, 2016.

Here are some glimpses of some of the social sharing I did throughout the few days we were there.

Each of those photos has a story, but I shared all of that on social media. How much do we love that photo bomber in the bottom photo – ha!

I was invited to be a speaker, which is always a fulfilling experience for me as I share my love for Project Life® and I am able to witness first-hand the lightbulbs that go off in people’s minds as they learn how simple scrapbooking can be with our system and products. My students always tend to light up the most when I demonstrate the app. It’s all really so much fun. I love my job.

Even more enriching in this particular event – for me – was being able to witness and watch each of the keynote speakers and performers talk about their own personal connection to family history and what it means to them. I was moved to tears (the happy kind) like 14 times – I’m not kidding. There are so many layers to that whole reality of connecting between generations and realizing that we are the link between our ancestors and our posterity.

It’s really the most beautiful thing.

If I can name-drop just a little bit… we listened to keynote addresses by former First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter / correspondent for NBC’s Today ShowJenna Bush Hager; one of the world’s most famous entertainers for half a century now – Donny Osmond; author / TED speaker / fascinating human being A.J. Jacobs; Olympic silver medalist Noelle Pikus Pace; a couple men that I very much look up to who are leaders of the Mormon faith; and Al Fox Carraway, who has an incredibly inspiring story and is affectionately known as the “Tattooed Mormon.”

We were entertained by Alex Boyé, Lexi Walker, and the One Voice Children’s Choir (who were recently on America’s Got Talent). We enjoyed the candor and comedy of Studio C, and who doesn’t love David Archuleta’s voice, am I right? He showed up on most of our radars several years ago when he raced to the finals of American Idol and I’ve been a fan ever since.

I was able to enjoy lovely conversations with several of these individuals, as well as Dennis Brimhall – the CEO of FamilySearch which, by the way, is one of the coolest tools out there for family history and genealogy, in case you haven’t checked that out yet. The three big sponsors of RootsTech (and also totally worth checking out!) were Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Find My Past. I’m so pleased to see how technology is not only helping millions of people make those family connections, but that the entire industry is doing a better job at appealing to our younger audience as well.

Family History is for everyone!

Yes, there were several influencers in the Mormon faith at RootsTech (in case you’re picking up on that – ha!), but no — this is not a conference just for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There were countless religions and cultural backgrounds represented at RootsTech. Connecting with our ancestors, keeping memories preserved, and doing family history in various forms has a very broad appeal to a huge mass of people. Religion, skin color, economic or marital status, age… these are not boundaries.

Thank you, Ancestry.com and RootsTech for a remarkable experience that I’ll keep close to my heart for a very long time.

We’ve talked about trying to our family genealogy and I am so disappointed about not doing it when my grandparents were still alive. Just asking them above one generation up was already a challenge because they had big families and failing memories!

You talk a lot about social media. It was through Facebook that some of my family members found family relations still living in France. The French members invited us to a family reunion. A couple of my cousins went and came back with a family tree that goes back to the 1400s. It was great to be able to see this. This represents 25 percent of my family history. I would love to look for the other parts of the family.

I really enjoy family history and connecting it our present. Recently, I’ve discovered a lot about my family tree, more than I’d ever thought I’d know about one branch thanks to a distant cousin. My project this year is to tell the discoveries in scrapbook style. I’m so thrilled you’ve brought this approach to RootsTech! Go Becky!!

Most areas in the US have genealogy Facebook groups. They have been invaluable in my own research and getting through the walls you encounter. Being able to share my father’s family history with him- the stories and things he didn’t know- is pretty amazing. It’s social media that’s helped me fill in these details.

Thank goodness for all the work the Mormons have done in this field. There records and resources made genealogy accessible to the masses.

Lol, kicking back with a bowl of popcorn barley. I’m in the Flavor camp- start Kap in NO, see how it goes then let coach make the call. But the level of analysis here has been great. Pass the sa3#lt82&0;

Hi Becky, on instagram you mentioned that you take pictures of old photographs for your family history scrapbooking. Could you share how you do that with the pictures turning out clear? Mine turn out like a really bad scan. Any other tips for scrapbooking old photographs and family history would be fantastic!

Thanks for sharing your experience at this event. I would have loved to go, but didn’t know about it till it was over! I was also just returning from Creativeworld in Germany so I’m not sure I could have attended this year. Next year for sure!

My husband created a family history site for both sides of his family, and he’s included my family too. I cannot even begin to express how wonderful it’s been to have all of our family info in one place, where everyone can easily access it. The older generations can easily look through their history and the younger generations use the info for school projects. The site includes the family trees, thousands of photos and scanned documents, and digitized home movies.

I know he used Ancestry.com for this project and he was able to find information on family members through all the great work geneologists and family historians before him created and shared.

I just visited with my Mom in Germany and we scanned in even more photos, photos from my now deceased grandmother’s (Oma’s) collection. As we scoured the albums and scanned the photos, my mom shared more stories from her childhood, stories I had never heard before! Again, what a gift!

I’m so happy to be part of an industry that values family history and our daily memories. As you said, so much fun!